Thai Food in Chile: Do It Yourself

One of the complaints most foreigners have about Chile is the lack of decent-and spicy- Asian food. Chinese food here is beyond appalling and Thai and Indian cuisine is watered down and Chileanised so much that it resembles the original only in name.

Now to get around this, you have to cook your own. If you live in Santiasco, then you have easy access to the Chinese and Korean supermarkets in Patronato where you can buy all the sauces, frozen dim-sum, noodles and other imported goodies your little hearts desire. If you live on the coast, however, you're screwed. But not anymore...

Both Jumbo and Lider now stock a reasonable variety of imported Asian spices and sauces. The best find was the authentic Thai curry pastes in Lider in Vina (also sold in a little store on Arlegui). Red, green and yellow are available and mixed in with the Thai coconut milk from Lider you can make a fantastic Thai curry.

The Thai pastes from Jumbo (there's Tom Yum and a couple of others) are really good for making proper fried rice. Jumbo's coconut milk is an absurd rip off at 2400 pesos, however. Lider's Thai stuff is about 800 pesos. The curry pastes cost around 2500 pesos and last forever.

Now, let's hope that real Indian spices make it over here soon as well...

How To Make A Bacon Sandwich In Chile

There's not all that much that I miss about England. To most people's surprise, I usually mention food. Things like chicken pie, roast lamb/pork/beef with all the trimmings, cottage pie, sag wal, dim sum and pad thai amongst other traditional British dishes. But I think the one food item I miss most is bacon. Bacon is a gift from the gods. Smoked back bacon with just a thin line of fat. Maple cured bacon. Fatty, streaky bacon. Hmmm.....just thinking about it is making me dribble onto my keyboard.

For some unknown reason, proper British style bacon is not really very common outside of certain countries (Denmark, Canada and Australia are the three that mainly spring to mind). I don't know why this is. It's soooo good. Strange people, foreigners.

So what can you do about this unfortunate fact of life in Chile? Improvise. After much investigation, here's the definitive guide to how to make a bacon sandwich in Chile.

First off, just accept that there's no bacon. I've found the best substitute to be Jamon Colonial J.K. (J.K being the brand). It's available in most supermarkets and costs around £1.50/250g. Out of all the different hams I tried, I keep coming back to this one. Make sure you get slices with the all important fat on it them, like this:


The next most important part of a bacon sandwich is the bread. Don't buy your bread from the supermarket. It's horrible. Go to a bakery. If possible, come to Cerro Concepcion and go to the bakery on the corner of Alte Montt and Urriola. The bread to buy? Pan batido as it's known in Valparaiso or Marraqueta as it's known pretty much everywhere else. Below is what it looks like. This is two pieces-break in the middle, horizontally to get the one piece required.

Now heat it in the oven for 5 minutes.


When I can be bothered, I fry a few red onion rings for added flavour. Once they're done, fry the ham until the fat on it has become crispy.


Cut the bread in half and add a little olive oil. Put the 'bacon' in. Then add a couple of slices of fresh tomato, a bit of salt, a sprinkling of oregano and, if you're feeling fat, some freshly grated reggianato cheese. I also like a bit of tomato sauce.

Cut down the middle and enjoy. Yum.


Don't forget to have a nice cup of tea afterwards. Here's my guide about how to make a good cuppa in Chile.

How to Make a Good Cuppa in Chile

While other foreign bloggers in Chile write about inanities such as poverty, human trafficking, racism and the joy of Talca, i'm keeping focused on the serious issues. Just what do you do when your supply of PG Tips Pyramids runs out?

When i was living in Argentina, i had all my visitors from back home bring me boxes of tea. I amassed a fair few tea bags over the course of a year or so-something in the region of 1500 actually. Why did i need to have tea smuggled into the country, i can hear you ask. Because tea in Argentina was rotten. It was all locally produced, weak and foul. The only half decent tea i found was Lipton but it was horribly expensive and i'm not a great fan of it to be honest.

This was an issue that started to worry me a couple of months ago here in Chile. I was running low on PG Tips and decided to start experimenting with locally available teas. First attempts weren't altogether successful. A lot of tea in Chile is imported from Argentina. However, after rummaging around the supermarket shelves, i came across two or three that were made from tea imported from Sri Lanka. That's proper tea.

So here's my guide about how to make a god cuppa tea in Chile.

First, choose your tea. After much trial and error i've found Té Club to be the best. Be careful to only buy the blue box as this is the only variety of theirs that is made from Ceylon tea.



Next, use a big mug. None of these nancy tea cups. Use two tea bags per mug-it's not very strong and one bag gives you grey water. Pour in boiling water that´s not quite boiling. Stir the tea bags and then let stand for a minute or two.




Now use a tea spoon and wrap the strings from the tea bag around the spoon until you can squash all the lovely tea out of the bag with your thumb.




Finally, add milk* and enjoy. Do not add sugar. If you have to add sugar to your tea, it means you don´t like tea.





As a final note, you should be really aware that if you order té con leche (tea with milk) in Chile, what you'll get is a lukewarm cup of milk and a tea bag. Ask for té con un poco de leche aparte and you should get a tea bag, some lukewarm water and a bit of milk on the side. Ask for the agua that comes with the tea bag to be bien caliente por favor and you might just be lucky enough to get really hot water. Best to just not order tea when you're out and about. Save it for when you get home.

*You can't get real milk in Chile. It's all UHT stuff that tastes nasty. The least revolting tasting milk i've found is the semi-skimmed Lonco Leche brand. It's the only one that doesn't separate when it's added to hot drinks.

Food in Chile

Chile has always had a bad rep when it comes to decent food. In general, the food here is not spectacular and is pretty bland. Compared to Peruvian or Mexican food or the Carribean Latin American countries' cuisine it isn't up to much.

However, i don't think the food here deserves such a bad reputation. I admit that when i first arrived in Chile i was distinctly underwhelmed with the dining options here. I'd just arrived from Argentina, having gorged myself on spectacular beef every day for 3 weeks and i expected something similar in Chile. Eating out at decent restaurants was not very thrilling. That's changed a lot in the last three years. International cuisine (and by that i mean the French and Italian based food that is served up in pretty much every restaurant in the world that doesn't specialise in a particular ethnic cuisine) in proper restaurants is now the best i've had in South America. It's not Chilean food, per se, but it's decent restaurant food that would stand up in most European countries and it's pretty decent value. Washed down with a good Cabernet Sauvignon and you can't go wrong.

Having lived in Buenos Aires for nigh on 3 years i cannot say the same about Argentine cuisine. With the exception of the quite divine beef, fancy restaurants in Argentina serve up complete rubbish disguised as cocina de autor. This basically means that the chef takes a perfectly good french or italian recipe and adds his own, personal, 'touch' The result is almost always pants. The worst meal i've had in my life was in Mendoza at a pricey restaurant with cocina de autor. With the exception of Azema in Buenos Aires (Carranza 1875), i found international cuisine in Argentina to be of the worst quality i've had in any part of the world. Cambodia included. It's all about style in Argentine 'nice' restaurants and to hell with serving up edible food. In Buenos Aires, give me a hole in the wall parilla any day of the week and i'm happy. In the north of Argentina, the food is very different and more 'Andean'-more stews, casseroles and corn based foods. Some people love locro, a stew of pork, pork fat, peas, corn and other goodies. Personally i can't stand the stuff and refer it it as a 'big bowl of bile', but that's just me. Otherwise, northern Argentine food is pretty tasty. So, in Argentina, stick to steak (and anything else that can be carved or power-hosed off a cow)-it's the best in the world.

On the other hand, in Chile the chefs have a bit more discipline. If they're cooking French food, they'll take a recipe from France and cook it. No trying to improve it. So the result is pretty decent French food. The same with Italian food. The same with the quite delicious Peruvian food that's so popular here. That's how it should be done-cooked to the original recipe.

One thing that Chile does particularly well is sea-food. Seeing as Chile has thousands of miles of coastline you would expect this. In Chile, anything that swims, crawls or slithers is eaten. I'm not a huge fan of shell-fish but i do like white sea-fish. There's an array of fish available-here are a few of the most common:

Congrio: Conger eel-a firm, fleshy white fish

Reineta: reineta apparently doesn't exist outside of Chilean waters, so there's no English name for it. It's another white fish, less fleshy but with a little more flavour than congrio

Albacora: despite every guide book and dictionary stating that this is a small, Tuna like fish, in Chile albacora is Swordfish. Delicious when just a little under-cooked

Lenguado: Sole

Corvina: Sea bass

Merluza: Hake

Salmon: Salmon (duh)

Pejerrey: Small, white fish usually eaten fried and whole

Most fish is cooked a la plancha (on a hot plate) and can be jazzed up by asking a la mantequilla or al ajillo (with butter or with garlic). I'm a garlic fan.

Now if you do like those slimy, smelly bits of gunk that are to be found in shells, here's a list of what you might find in chile.

Almejas: Clams

Locos: Abalone

Choritos: Mussels

Ostras: Oysters

Erizo: Sea urchin

Ostiones: Scallops

Machas: These are commonly translated as Razor Clams. The problem is that they're not razor clams. I don't know what they are, maybe another type of clam. If i actually liked them, i might try to find out. As it is, you'll just have to order them and see what you think.

Picoroco: Giant barnacle with a big claw (****someone i know once exclaimed loudly at a party that "me encanta el picorico", thinking she was saying how much she liked the barnacle. In reality, she had just shouted, "I love Hot Cock". Try not to make the same mistake. It doesn't make for a good impression****)

Other ocean going critters are:

Langosta: Lobster
Jaiba: Small crab
Centolla: King crab
Camarones: Prawns

Ceviche is a sea-food dish that involves raw fish and other stuff from the sea being marinaded in lemon juice. The citric acid cooks the fish. Some people love it. I don't. Too acid for me.

Paila marina is a sea food stew. Too fishy for me...

As for other typical food in Chile-you've got the basics that i love. Pollo/carne al jugo con arroz o puré which is slow braised chicken or beef in its own juices with either rice or mashed potatoes.

Humitas: like a tamale, with mashed sweet corn and basil steamed in corn leaf.

Pastel de choclo: the same as a humita but with minced meat underneath the corn.

Chilean empanadas: Empanadas in most countries are like Cornish Pasties-baked, savoury pastries with mince meat, or chicken, or ham and cheese. In Chile, this type exists but they also do deep fried empanadas. Really, really bad for you but very, very good. Sea food and cheese ones are the favourites.

Chorillana: This is a speciality of Valparaiso, allegedly first being served up in J Cruz in Valpo. it consists of strips of beef, onions and chips all fried together with a few eggs thrown in for good measure. It's a heart attack on a plate. And it goes well with beer.

Cazuela hmmm...cazuela...a chicken or beef water based broth (i prefer the chicken) with pumpkin, potatoes, carrots, celery, over-cooked rice, onions and corn on the cob. On a cold winter's day, there nothing quite like it.

The reason people think so little of Chilean food is that probably the most popular type of cheap, fast food is the hot-dog. A completo is the hot dog with chutcrut, tomato, mayo and ketchup or the italiano which is with avocado, tomato and mayo (as is the colours of the Italian flag). Not very inspiring but it's what most people are exposed to when looking for cheap food on the streets of Chile.

Other fast food options would be the churrasco, a thin beef sandwich or the lomito, the same thing but with pork.

Head south and you get German food which is really good. Head north and you see more Peruvian food. Also good.

Try to avoid Chinese food in Chile. Despite there being 100s of chinese restaurants in chile run by real chinese people who speak chinese, the food they serve up is not chinese. Chop suey and variations on a theme is the best you can hope for and poor quality at that. I guess that's what the chinese decided chileans would like and they've all stuck together with the plan...and it's not even very cheap.

So there you have it. A summary of Chilean food. I'm sure people will disagree with my assessment of Argentine food and probably Chilean food as well but it's all about opinions and personal tastes isn't it? Happy eating...Buen provecho...